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Ice cubes crashed into the bottom of a cooling unit underneath some soda fountains behind the main counter of a local pizza parlor. A woman poured a second bucket of ice into the unit, topping it off before shutting the lid. She walked through an open entrance way from the counter to the kitchen. Two other men were standing in the kitchen as she entered. One was standing at the end of a conveyor style pizza oven while the other was standing making a pizza at one of the make tables. She walked past them toward the back of the kitchen and hung the ice buckets on the wall next to an ice maker.
As she walked back towards the counter, she noticed two pizza boxes stacked on top of each other and a Togo bag that was neatly wrapped around some containers housing other food. Bending over the order, she read the ticket that was taped to the pizza boxes and checked the time on the order.
After inspecting the ticket, she asked the man standing at the end of the oven, “How long has this order been up?”
The man looked over at her as he pulled a pizza off the conveyor and slid it into a pizza box with a pizza paddle. “About four or five minutes I’d say.” He began to cut the pizza with a pizza cutter and continued on saying, “I thought Wade was here, so I packed it all up for him, but I guess he ran a different order.”
An angered expression manifested over the woman’s face as she said angrily, “No he’s out in the diner playing one of the arcade games.” She leaned over the delivery order and punched an employee code into the computer’s touch screen monitor sitting on the counter. After a moment, she called out into the diner, “Wade! Get your ass in here and take this delivery. It’s been up for five minutes!”
In the back of the diner, where a bunch of arcade games where a man in his early twenties who was standing at a larger arcade game next to a younger teenager. They were both intensely mashing buttons on the machine and maneuvering a joystick. As the older man heard his name being called, he chose to ignore it while he and the teenager kept playing the game.
The younger of the two said enraged, “Come on man, you fuckin suck! I’m doing all the work here.”
Wade replied, “I don’t spend all day playing this like you do so excuse me if I’m not as good as you.”
The kid huffed and said, “Yeah well you’re not the one who dumped ten bucks into this shitty game, and we haven’t even cleared the second level yet.” He adjusted his stance and kept hammering away on the game’s buttons. He was wearing a plain black hoodie with brown cargo shorts with matching black comfy skate shoes. The kid had shaggy light brown hair that was almost completely concealed by a black saggy beanie.
Wade, who was standing next to him, had hair that was of medium length and was wearing dark denim jeans and a casual brown un-zipped jacket revealing a white t-shirt underneath that was tucked into his jeans. After hearing his name being called multiple times he said, “Sorry bro, I have to go take a delivery really quick. We can finish this when I get back and get some food before heading home.”
The kid complained, “Wade, what the hell? At least play until you use your lives up. I paid for this round.”
Wade looked over his shoulder behind him and saw a family sitting at a table nearby. The mother and father were laughing while helping a younger kid into a highchair. There were two other kids at the table and one wearing a blue shirt that looked old enough to be in high school. Wade called out to one of them, “Hey kid in the blue shirt.” The kid looked up at Wade as he continued, “While you wait for your food do you want to take over for me and play a free game with my brother?”
The kid turned to his mom and dad, who were regulars at the restaurant, and they motioned to him to go play the arcade game while they waited. After being reassured it was okay, he leapt from his seat and ran over to Wade and took over the controls. Before Wade’s younger brother could protest his decision, Wade had already escaped to the kitchen through a side entrance in the diner and made his way to the driver station where the woman who had been calling his name out was standing with an angered expression on her face.
“Have you gone deaf or something?” she asked while practically screaming at Wade.
With a smile Wade replied, “No just spending quality family time with Zane.”
With a sarcastic tone in her voice she said, “That’s cute. But you’re still on the clock and now you’re late on taking this delivery.” She scooped up a large pizza hot bag containing the pizzas and the bag of side foods and shoved it into Wade’s arms, and she said authoritatively, “I already clocked you out for delivery so get your ass moving.”
Without a word Wade took the order and headed out the back kitchen door that exited to an alleyway behind the establishment where a red 1993 Ford Mustang convertible was parked alongside a dumpster. Because the top was down, Wade was able to lean over the passenger door and set the food on the seat. He adjusted a towel underneath the food that he kept on the seat to prop the food up to keep the pizza toppings from sliding off the pizza’s due to the seat being on a slight incline. He then strapped the seatbelt around the food in a way that would keep the pizza bags from sliding off the seat before walking around to the driver side and hopping over the door directly into the driver seat and starting the car.
Wade was fastening and buckling his seatbelt when another car began to pull around the side of the building into the alley. It was a black fully restored 1968 Camaro. Its engine roared as it pulled up next to Wade while its fully black tinted windows rolled down. The windows fully rolled down revealing a younger girl wearing a black flat bill backwards hat sitting in the driver’s seat.
She yelled out the window to Wade and asked, “Are there any deliveries up?”
Wade replied to her, but it wasn’t an answer to her question, “Please tell me you’re not cranking the AC on a beautiful day like this.”
The girl frowned and said, “It’s allergy season and I’m listening to loud music.”
Wade said, “It’s October Alice. Aren’t allergies a spring thing? Besides this is probably going to be the last nice day before it starts getting colder.”
Alice groaned as she said, “You’re starting to sound like my grandpa. Is there a delivery up or not? I want to smoke a joint if there isn’t one.”
Wade laughed and replied, “Like it would make a difference if there was one up or not?”
Alice exclaimed, “Of course it would! I’m trying to be responsible and don’t want to spark up if I have to take a delivery.”
Before she could say another word, Wade interrupted and said, “Is it really responsible to smoke while working at all?”
A frown began to engulf Alice’s face while she said, “You’re starting to sound like my dad now.”
After shifting from neutral to reverse, Wade said, “No there isn’t a delivery up and don’t let Mary catch you smoking back here. She’s not in a good mood.”
The clock on Alices dashboard stated that it was nearly seven thirty pm as she shouted out her window, “Wade wait! How far is your delivery?”
Before Wade could reverse out of the alleyway he asked, “What?”
Alice carefully held up a joint and asked, “You wanna get high?”
Wade carefully held up a neatly wrapped blunt and asked, “I don’t know do you?”
The nearly black tinted window quickly rolled up as the Camaro quickly pulled around the dumpster and parked near the back door Wade originally came out from. Alice hopped out of the car and ran around to the passenger side of Wade’s car and opened the door. She quickly undid the seat belt and threw the towel on the floorboard. She carefully got into the car while moving the food to her lap as she shut the door and put the seatbelt around herself.
She quickly motioned to go as she said, “Hurry before Mary comes out! I haven’t smoked all day and I don’t want to miss my chance.”
The red mustang backed out of the alley way and reversed into a roadway that connected the pizza establishment to a gas station next door. Before shifting into first gear, Wade asked, “So it would be irresponsible for you to smoke while on a delivery, but responsible if you smoke with me while I’m on a delivery?”
A flame from Alice’s lighter ignited as she lighted a joint that was hanging from her lips while she said, “Shut up. You know what I meant. You’re a lot older than me so I trust you to drive.”
Wade fired back in protest, “Are you kidding me? I’m barely a year older than you. We graduated the same year of high school. Don’t give me that shit.” The car’s engine roared as Wade shifted into first gear and pulled out into the street and made a left turn driving past the gas station. The car came to a stop at a nearby traffic light and he motioned for Alice to keep the joint down as he said, “Even though cannabis is legal now, you’re not supposed to smoke while driving.”
Alice held in a hit while she managed to say, “I’m not the one driving. You are.”
The light turned green, and Wade made a left turn onto a two-way street and drove up an incline into a heavily wooded area. “Just don’t let a cop see you smoking it is all I’m saying.” He handed the blunt he had rolled over to Alice as she handed him the joint. She then lit the blunt and took a few drags off it. While trying to hold in a hit, she began to cough and tried to say, “Wow that’s some good shit!” What is that and what dispensary did it come from?”
Wade exhaled some smoke as he handed the joint back to Alice and replied, “It didn’t come from a dispensary. I’m not going to pay for that overpriced shit when I have a medical license and can grow my own legally.”
With a surprised look on her face, Alice said, “Wow, I didn’t know you had a medical license.”
A smile crossed Wade’s face as he said, “Yeah, well when the state legalized medical, I had multiple qualifying conditions, and I wasn’t going to smoke street stuff anymore when I could get medical grade stuff. Then I was able to get a home cultivator license, so I didn’t have to keep paying for overpriced eights.”
In one hand Alice was holding her joint and the other Wade’s blunt. She was so high already she could barely talk or pass anything to Wade. The vehicle made a sharp right turn, and the pizza bag began to slide off Alice’s lap. Alice didn’t have any free hands because she was still holding both the blunt and joint, lost in her own thoughts listening to Wade. Before the bags could fall onto the floorboard’s, Wade quickly reached over and pushed the bags back onto Alice’s lap.
His hand had briefly brushed past her inner thigh as she snapped back to reality and said while blushing, “Whoa, I’m too high to do anything naughty right now.”
Wade began to blush as he said, “What the hell? I don’t know what you’re getting at but one, I’m not going to let your carelessness ruin the food making me pay for this order. And two, you know I have a girlfriend.”
Alice handed both the joint and blunt to Wade and said while assuring him, “Come on, you know I’m kidding. I have a boyfriend and wouldn’t do that to him.” She looked out the window while she continued to blush because she knew she didn’t have a boyfriend. Wade didn’t actually know if she was single or not because up until a couple years ago when she started working with him, he hadn’t seen her since they graduated high school which was almost seven years ago. She eventually turned around and reached into the back seat and pulled out a large binder full of cd’s. After flipping through it she picked a cd and put it into the cd player. While Wade was talking, she selected a specific track and turned up the volume louder than Wade was talking.
The music suddenly dropped in volume as Wade pressed a button on his steering wheel. “What’s the matter with you?” he asked while changing the cd back to track one. “I don’t get in your car and just start blasting music while you’re talking.”
Alice groaned as she said, “I don’t want to hear you talk about your girlfriend while I’m trying to get stoned. Also, I was just listening to that album before I got back from my delivery, so I wanted to hear the rest of that song.”
In surprise, Wade asked, “Wait you actually like that band?” He was surprised because the band in question was a metal band known as After the Burial and wasn’t commonly known around the area which he lived in.
“Of course, I do. You act like you don’t know me” Alice said angrily.
“I didn’t take you as a metal head. All I ever hear you listening to is rap and country.” Wade said as he slowed the vehicle.
In front of him was a white utility truck with a boom and bucket. The arm of the truck was fully extended as a worker from the electric company was in the bucket working on the lines off a telephone pole. Down below another man was standing with a sign directing the two-way traffic. Down the street on another pole, was another electric company worker except he wasn’t in a bucket truck. He had climbed the pole on his own and was hanging from a harness as he worked on a transformer attached to the telephone pole.
After a few cars drove past Wade and Alice, the man directing traffic flipped the sign around he was holding, and it now said slow instead of stop. The mustang began to slowly drive past the workers in the oncoming lane before returning to the proper one and began to accelerate away.
Alice was slowly rocking her head back and forth with the joint hanging from her lips as she listened to the music. The area was still heavily wooded, and all the trees were vibrantly alive with different colors as leaves were starting to fall off because of the season. Bright varieties of red and yellow leaves littered the treetops as they bathed in the evening sunlight. Alice was wearing a red wind breaker jacket that had the logo of the pizza parlor on it and black denim shorts that barely reached her knees. Her hat was still on backwards while her short brown hair was blowing in the wind from the top of the mustang being down.
The volume of the music lowered once again while Wade began to say, “Were almost there. If you want to put those out for a moment so the car can air out a bit before we arrive.”
While reaching over to the ash tray between the seats, Alice asked, “Is this your big secret? Just airing the car out a minute or two before you arrive?”
After taking a sip from a drink he had in a cup holder he replied, “Yeah, it’s that simple. And no one’s ever suspected me of being high constantly. Or at least they’ve never said anything.”
Wade pulled into a nearby driveway and pulled up behind a large parked blue van. Alices face lit up as she said, “I bet if you let me take this to the door, I can get you a bigger tip than if you do it.”
With his foot on the clutch, Wade shifted the vehicle into neutral and applied the parking brake before asking, “And why is that? Because you’re a girl?”
Alice punched Wade in the arm and said, “No, you jackass. It’s because this dude is an old pervert and has like a weird thing for me. Every time I deliver here, he tips me at least twenty bucks and makes some weird sexual joke.”
“What’s the catch?” Wade asked. “I assume you want me to do something in return if you’re going to make me extra money.”
Alice’s eyes were bloodshot, and her face was still red from blushing earlier and being extremely high. She said, “I’m fucking stoned and since you’re so used to driving around while high, you should take the next delivery so we can finish smoking.”
A moment passed while Wade thought about it and said, “Alright. If you insist on me making all the money tonight, I’m fine with that.”
The passenger door flung open while Alice got out of the car with the pizzas and the bag of side food and wobbled her way up to the front door.
Back in the car, Wade flipped through his binder of cd’s and chose a different one to listen too. After choosing a new cd, he took the blunt and joint out of the ashtray. The blunt was barely halfway smoked but the joint was hardly smokable. He began to break the joint up, separating the joint paper from the remaining cannabis, and packed it into a bowl he had pulled from the side panel in the driver door.
Alice came wobbling back down the driveway with the red pizza warmer bags swinging wildly behind her. She opened the passenger door and flopped into the seat and slammed the door shut. She had a wild look on her face as she said, “I made you fifty fuckin dollars bro. I was conducting a secret experiment. I was going to see if I told him about a perverted joke my brother told me once on my next delivery to him, if he would tip more and he totally did.” She began to laugh in an almost maniacal way before she finished saying, “Now I know I can milk this guy for everything he’s got the next time I take his delivery.”
Wade shifted the vehicle into reverse and began to back out of the driveway as he said, “That’s fucking evil Alice.”
She quickly rebutted, “Dudes a freakin perv. Instead of saying something about it and making it weird every time he orders, I’d rather just make more money off him while one upping his shitty jokes.”
Suddenly Wade stopped the car and turned to Alice and said, “If you want, I can go up there and kick his ass.”
A look of horror struck Alice’s face like a lightning bolt as she asked, “Why would you do something like that?”
With an awkward smile, Wade said, “Because you’re my friend and if he’s being a nasty bitch then I’m going to go up there and show him how he’s supposed to talk to a lady.”
Alice didn’t know whether Wade was being serious or joking with her so She said, “Well honestly, this time, I was the pervert since I told him a joke before he could even say anything. So, I guess you’re going to have to beat my ass instead.” She got on her knees and hung her torso over the passenger door while sticking her bottom half into Wade’s face as she said, “Be gentle daddy and hurry before mommy gets home.”
A wave of embarrassment and nervousness jolted across Wade’s face as he began to demand, “What the hell are you doing Alice?” He reached over and grabbed the back of her jacket and puller her back into her seat. She began to laugh hysterically while her body flopped back into her seat. Wade quickly continued to back out of the driveway and pulled back into the street and began to drive away very quickly. As they drove down the street, they approached the white utility truck that was now further down the road working on different polls. The man who had been by himself was still working on the same transformer a little farther down the road.
While Wade and Alice were waiting their turn to drive past the truck Wade said, “I don’t know if you should smoke the rest of this or not.” He held up the blunt and the bowl he had packed with the rest of the joint in one hand. He then continued to say, “I can’t tell if you’re inappropriately high or fucking with me.”
The electric company worker flipped the sign around signaling for Wade to go. Wade began to drive around the truck while Alice asked, “Am I attractive?”
With no hesitation Wade replied, “What the hell is this?”
“Just answer the question! And be honest…” Alice said a bit nervously.
Wade handed the blunt and bowl to Alice while saying, “Why does it matter? You are who you are. Is there something wrong with that?”
The tone in Alice’s voice began to change as she said sternly, “So I’m not attractive?”
Wade frowned and said, “I never said that.”
Alice asked, “Then what are you trying to say? Because at this point in my life I must be ugly. I haven’t had a boyfriend in so long and no one ever hits me up anymore. The only reason I bought that shitty car is because I thought maybe someone would be impressed and want to be with me if I had nice things.”
Wade was taken by surprise because that is not the direction, he thought she was going when she asked him the question. He thought for a minute then responded, “Look, I don’t know who hurt you to make you end up like this, but I can assure you, that you aren’t ugly.” As they continued to get closer to the store, Wade continued saying. “Despite what you might think of yourself, you are very cute.”
Alice faked a dry heave as she said, “Stop! You’re starting to sound like my dad again. A grown ass man shouldn’t use the word cute.” She shuffled around in her seat and said, “I get it. You don’t have the heart to tell me I’m a troll.”
Tires rolling across the pavement echoed throughout the gas station while Wade pulled next to a pump after turning in to the lot. The roof of the Mustang began to unfold out from behind the back seat as it latched itself into the mounts atop of the windshield. Once the roof was securely on and the windows were up Wade said to Alice, “I’m only going to say this once, so listen closely because I’ll deny ever saying this if you tell my girlfriend.” He handed Alice his lighter and kept saying, “Throughout high school you were definitely the most attractive girl there. I honestly don’t know why you always hung out with me because I was a nerdy fat kid back then and you were like a supermodel. Then after all these years, all the other girls we went to school with are all washed up grannies at twenty-five with ten kids and you happen to be even more beautiful than you were back then. So, what the hell are you talking about thinking you’re an ugly ass troll? Maybe you should go out more, hit the bar up, go hit golf balls into the Mississippi river or something. I bet some dude will just come walking out of the sunset and you’ll be surprised. But it isn’t going to happen if you’re sitting at home with your cat twenty-four seven or by yourself watching Netflix.”
While very stoned, and while trying to fight back tears, Alice asked while she looked out the passenger window, “Do you really believe that or are you saying all that to pacify me?”
Wade smiled and said, “I wouldn’t say it if it wasn’t true. And you don’t need to buy or have nice things for people to like you.” Wade flipped through his wallet and pulled out three twenty-dollar bills as he said, “Even though that is a sick ass car and you look good driving it, you don’t need nice cars to impress people. They should like you for you not for the material objects you own.”
Alice wanted to make fun of him for sounding so wise and all-knowing, but she was afraid if she tried to speak, she might start crying since no one has ever said anything so nice about her that wasn’t her parents. There was only one thing she could think of to do. She turned and looked at Wade and then suddenly began punching him in the arm as hard as she could with both hands while still holding the blunt and pipe. She started saying while continuously punching Wade’s arm, “I don’t even have a cat anymore. I let him out to go to the bathroom like a month ago and he never came back.”
Wade caught her fists and said, “Well, sorry about your cat. You never told me that.” He released her fists as he started to get out of the car. Before he closed the door he asked, “You want anything like a drink or something? It’s on me.”
After shuffling around in her seat again, Alice said, “Get me some beef jerky and a bottle of water.”
The driver door shut while Wade walked into the gas station. He walked up and down the aisles and grabbed different beef jerky packages and some other snacks before heading over to the drink coolers. After opening a cooler door, he grabbed a few bottles of water and some energy drinks. He quickly made his way to the checkout counter and piled all the stuff he had gathered on top of it.
As the cashier began to ring up all his items, a television set above the counter was blaring a news broadcast about a meteor shower that happened last night and how unexpected meteorites had hit and damaged houses in the local area. A lady was being interviewed as she recalled the events of her evening the night before when she thought some neighborhood kids might had thrown a baseball or rock threw her kitchen window, when it actually turned out to be a small meteorite. The broadcast then went on to break down the composition of some of the recovered meteorites and how they shared a similar composition of those on the surface of the moon and even Earth due to the percentages of silicon, magnesium, and iron found in the rocks.
As the broadcast went even further defining the differences between asteroids, meteors, meteoroids, and meteorites, the cashier said to Wade, “You know my neighbor’s house got hit by one of those things? She’s convinced she’s going to get a lot of money if she sells it on eBay to some kind of meteorite collectors.”
The news broadcast cut to a commercial break and Wade responded, “I’m no expert on space rocks but if one fell out of the sky and crashed through my window, I’d be hesitant to touch it. After a quick google search, I’d contact whomever to come get it and remove it.”
The cashier frowned and started bagging all the items he had placed on the counter as she said, “Well that’s no fun.”
Wade quickly responded, “What if that rock had a weird bacteria or virus on it that was dormant for thousands of years while it flew around in space? Then it comes crashing back through our atmosphere warming it up and rehydrating it causing a global pandemic.” The cashier had a horrified look on her face as she finished bagging Wade’s items. Wade went on to say, “Then, your neighbor becomes ground zero and instead of making money she gets locked up in some top-secret government facility and is experimented on since she was the first person it contacted.”
The horrified look on the cashier’s face disappeared as she said, “I think you’ve either watched too many movies, or you should be writing them because that’s quite an imagination you got there.”
Before the cashier could read out a price, Wade quickly said, “I’m also going to need thirty on pump two.” He pulled out a bunch of his tip money from working and said, “And when you and your neighbor get rich off the meteorite money don’t forget who your favorite pizza delivery guy was.”
After a laugh, the cashier said, “Your total is fifty-six twenty-two.” Wade handed her three twenty-dollar bills, and she counted back his change.
As Wade exited through the door closest to the counter, he saw Alice standing next to the back of his mustang, pumping his gas for him. When he was close enough to the car he said, “How kind of you Ms.”
Alice turned her head and replied, “I heard the pump ding and saw you put money on it, so I thought I’d be useful.”
Wade got in the driver side of the car and set the bag he was holding onto the back seat and said, “It’s much appreciated.” While he was sitting in the car, he noticed the sign turn off at the pizza parlor he worked at next door. He thought to himself how it was odd since it wasn’t even eight o’clock in the evening and they were supposed to be open until eleven.
The passenger door opened and then shut as Alice got back into the car and fastened her seatbelt. She then asked, “Did we close early or something?”
With a look of concern Wade responded, “I hope not, I was scheduled till close and don’t want to lose any money.” The vehicles engine started up and Wade drove over to the back alleyway behind the store. He left his engine running while he got out and went through the back kitchen door of the building.
As he approached the driving station, he noticed the diner of the store had already been closed and his brother was gone. A man came around the corner holding one of the larger pizza warmer bags and a bunch of side food stacked on top of it. The man said, “Hey Wade, I already cashed you out since that last delivery just needed a signature. So, if you hand over the credit card slip and take this last delivery we can get out of here. It’s a double but the houses are literally across the street from each other, and they are both paying in cash so if you fork over what they owe, you can keep whatever they give you and I can close the store.”
Wade took the bags of food and asked, “Did something happen? Why are we closing early?”
The man opened the register and fumbled around with the money Wade handed him and said, “Yeah, Mary’s kid got into some kind of accident at home, and she couldn’t get another store manager to come in. She took your brother home for you since she didn’t want anyone in the store after we closed, and I’ve just been waiting for you and Alice to come back so I can cash you out and get out of here myself.” While the man fumbled around with money from the register, he handed Wade a twenty and said, “Here kid, take this. The people who placed that order sounded drunk as shit so who knows if they’ll actually tip.”
The tickets on the pizza bags indicated that both deliveries were about ten minutes away off a street called Meadow Brook. Wade said, “That’s cool and I appreciate the extra twenty. Drunk or not people over there don’t usually tip. Alice is also out back so I’ll send her in really quick so you can cash her out too.” Wade took everything he needed and headed back out to his car. He opened the door and said to Alice, “Hey looks like we are closing early, and I have to run a double. Mark wants to cash you out so he can go home so if you want to tag along, I can wait, or you can head out of here.”
Alice thought for a moment and said, “I still want to hang out, so I’ll be right back.” She got out of the car and headed inside while Wade set the food on the passenger seat of the car and waited for her. A garage door on the fire department across the street began to open while loud sirens pierced the silence surrounding the establishment. An ambulance and fire truck quickly rolled out from within the garage and took off down the street in the opposite direction Wade knew he’d be going.
The back door to the restaurant flew open as Alice came dashing out of it and went to her car. She grabbed a few things from inside and then skipped back over to Wade’s mustang. Wade held the bags of food so she could get back in and then set them on her lap as he started to back out of the alleyway.
In Alice’s hands was a large wad of cash that she was counting while Wade pulled out of the roadway between the pizza parlor and gas station and drove down the street towards a nearby highway. Alice had put a different CD into the car’s CD player and began flipping through songs until she said, “I hope Mary’s son is alright. Little kids can be crazy, and I can only imagine what kind of accident he got himself into.”
Trees began to engulf the area again as they got closer to the highway. Wade cleared his throat and said, “I’m sure he’s alright. She had enough time to clean and close the diner while we were gone instead of running out of there screaming so I assume it’s nothing too horrific.”
Headlights on the car turned on as the night slowly drowned out the sunlight while Wade and Alice got onto the highway. There was more traffic than usual for a Monday night. Alice took the blunt, which now resembled a tree from a Dr Suess book from her clenching it in her fist when she punched Wade earlier and lit it. While they traversed down the highway, there was an unusual number of cars and police vehicles pulled off to the side of the road as if there was a sobriety check point. Wade noticed there were a few officers on the shoulder of the road wrestling with some people, so he pulled into the farthest lane away and continued driving down the highway.
While exhaling a breath of smoke, Alice said, “You’d think there was some kind of sports event going on to have this many drunks out on a Monday night.”
Wade replied, “As long as you keep that blunt down, we won’t have to wrestle any officers tonight.” After a few minutes of driving past regular and police vehicles on the side of the highway, the road became dark and there wasn’t a soul in sight. Smoke had filled the car as the blunt was now three fourths of the way smoked. Wade cracked a window and said to Alice, “Funny how there was so many people just a moment ago and now we’ve returned to a normal Monday night on the road.”
The vehicle pulled off at the next exit and made a right turn down a long a winding road through an even more wooded area. Alice asked playfully, “You’re not going to air the car out oh responsible one?”
As Wade made another right turn the road went from pavement to gravel and the sound of the rocks grinding under the tires echoed between the nearby trees while Wade said, “Mark said these guys sounded shitfaced and the stores closed now so I’m not too worried about them saying anything.”
They approached the end of the street which turned into a cul-de-sac with only two houses across from each other. The other houses on the lots were either vacant or torn down leaving the lots empty. Voices could be heard from behind the houses accompanied by loud music. Wade assumed they were having some sort of block party even though there were only two houses that seemed to be occupied.
“I’ll be back,” Wade said cheerfully as he exited the vehicle. Alice handed him the pizza bags and the bags of food for the current order before he shut the door. She then called to him, “Hey, if you want, I can run the second order across the street for you!”
While walking up to the house’s front door, Wade replied, “If you insist, I’m not going to stop you.”
Alice jumped out of the car with the remaining food and ran across the street while Wade stopped at a glass door that peered into the living room of the customer’s house. It was obvious to Wade that the occupants were having a wild party due to the amount of alcoholic beverage cans, the amount of trash, and remnants of drugs not only on the coffee table but also spread across the floor and on other furniture.
Wade rang the doorbell but felt it was drowned out by the obnoxiously loud music and started banging on the glass front door. Across the street, Alice stood on the porch of the other customers house and rang the doorbell. The occupants of this household were also having a large party that made it difficult to hear anyone at the front door. The living room window next to the front door was slightly ajar, and Alice noticed a foul smell escaping from it. After a series of unending knocks, she knelt by the window to see if she could see anything. The amount of music and random noises escaping the house inside were far too loud and if the occupants were intoxicated, she thought that she might have to yell through the window to get their attention.
Back on the porch opposite to Alice directly across the street, Wade watched as a woman finally appeared from the kitchen door and made her way through the living room. She was holding a crumpled mess of dollar bills and juggling around a large bag of change while she fumbled with the front door handle before finally managing to get the door open. While doing her best not to slur her words she said, “Sorry, I was trying to get to the door, but my husband just threw up all over the deck out back.” After a loud dry heave, she hiccupped and finished saying, “He’s so drunk, hopefully this pizza will fix him right up.” The woman handed Wade the bag of change and the pile of money and exclaimed, “There’s forty in cash and fifteen in change in this bag.”
An awkward moment lingered in the air as Wade cleared his throat and stated, “The total tonight is actually sixty-three seventy-five. So, you’re still about nine dollars short.”
The woman’s face scrunched up as if she was the one being inconvenienced and said as she turned her head to glance around the room. She started slurring her words as she said, “Oh, I must have dropped a ten on my way over here.”
She turned away from Wade and began retracing her steps through the living room back to the kitchen. She looked down a hallway between the living room and kitchen and when she looked back into the kitchen her husband was standing a few feet in front of her. Wade could tell from where he was standing that the man was covered in not only vomit, but what also looked like blood. His shirt was a typical bright Hawaiian style button down shirt that was unbuttoned. Green and red swimming trunks with large repeating patterns of flowers, hugged his waist as they were soaked in blood that was coming from a large open wound in his abdomen. The woman gasped in horror as she cried out, “Honey what happened?! We need to call—” Before the woman could finish speaking, her husband clasped both his hands together and smashed them into her face while letting out an inhumanly high-pitched screech that would be almost impossible for a human to do without many years of vocal practice. Music drowned out the man’s screeches while he continued to hammer away on her face as the woman’s body collapsed on the floor.
Unaware of the sudden commotion unfolding behind her across the street, Alice was still kneeling in front of the window with the foul stench escaping it. She peered through the slit between the window and the windowsill. It was hard to see past the blinds, but she was able to make out what looked like two people having sex on the living room floor inside. Fighting the urge to look away, Alice noticed something unusual. One of the them appeared to be covered in blood and had what looked like multiple stab wounds across their neck. Tires screeching across the pavement down the street stole Alice’s attention as she turned her head to get a glance at the commotion.
Even though he was stricken with horror, Wade opened the front door and rushed into the living room and tackled the man off the woman and into the kitchen. They both rolled around on the kitchen floor and the man kept bellowing out a series of screams and screeches that echoed off the walls louder than the music erupting from the houses stereo system. Wade noticed while wrestling with the man, in the corner of the kitchen, were multiple bodies sitting up against the wall that have had various parts of their bodies ripped off and lying next to them on the floor.
Headlights began to illuminate the end of the cul-de-sac while the oncoming vehicle continued to accelerate down the street. Alice couldn’t determine how fast the vehicle was going and why they were driving so fast, but before she could make any more contemplations, a person stumbled out from the back yard of the house she was at and limped their way into the street. They appeared to be holding their lower abdomen and it became clear to Alice, there was a large blood trail lingering behind them as they hobbled further into the road while the headlights from the oncoming vehicle illuminated their body.
With a loud yell, the man bellowed out, “Please help us!” as the vehicle slammed into his body, sending him up onto the hood and rolling through the windshield. Half the man’s body still hung out of the windshield while the vehicle lost control and began to roll through the neighbor’s yard next to Alice. With no time to second guess her decisions, she leapt off the porch, dropping the food, and rolled out of the way as the vehicle came crashing into the house.
Blood dripped onto Wade’s face as he laid on his back holding the man back, he had been fighting back by the neck with one hand. In the struggle with the man, Wade had noticed there were multiple lacerations across the man’s body not just the one he originally noticed. With his other hand he was shielding part of his head while the man was beating down on it with one of his fists. They were wedged between the wall and an overturned table in the corner of the kitchen next to some slouched corpses. Next to Wade’s head, in the hand of a severed arm, was a steak knife that looked bent and was covered in blood. He grabbed it partially by the blade with the hand that wasn’t choking the man, and while it was still tightly grasped in the severed arm’s hand, he drove it into the neck of the man on top of him.
The man cried out in pain as he rolled backwards onto the floor allowing Wade a chance to make an escape. While making a mad dash to the front door, Wade tripped over the woman’s body causing him to crash into the coffee table covered in trash in the living room. Before he could get back up, the man was standing over him with the severed arm still attached to the knife sticking out of his neck. Blood continued to squirt out of his wounds as he raised his hands and clenched them together above his head as he let out the most horrific squeal. Blood painted the walls and ceiling behind the man as a gunshot echoed throughout the house. Half the man’s head was missing while his body fell backwards into the kitchen. Wade looked up and standing in the front doorway was Alice, wielding a large Smith and Wesson 357 Magnum revolver. Before anyone could say anything another man, who seemed to be provoked by the gunshot, came tumbling down the hallway foaming at the mouth while knocking pictures off the walls.
A loud growling and gurgling noise erupted from his body while Alice turned and shot him in the face. His body folded like a lawn chair where he was standing in the hallway as Alice grabbed Wade by the hand and helped him to his feet. Her voice was weak while she struggled to catch her breath, but she managed to say, “Please tell me that I’m fucking high and none of this is actually happening”
Wade’s voice cracked as he wiped the blood off his face and said, “Where did you get a gun?”
Alice replied, “My dad told me he wouldn’t let me deliver without having one in case I ever got robbed or needed to defend myself.”
The glass front door shattered as a body came crashing through it, knocking into Wade and Alice sending them tumbling over the coffee table and couch before them. The man who had been hit by the vehicle moments ago was wildly flailing about on the floor screaming as large shards of glass from a windshield and the front door protruded out from his body. He managed to stand up before Wade or Alice and wrapped his arms, which had broken glass protruding from them, around his head allowing the glass to cut into his flesh as he screamed out in agony. He then charged towards Alice, who was nearby on the ground in front of them while she scrambled to get to her feet. In a panic, she reached around the floor searching for the gun she had dropped in the commotion when a series of gunshots rang throughout the living room once more.
Wade was down on one knee, holding the gun Alice had dropped and squeezing the trigger. After a few rounds fired, the hammer clicked against the back of the empty rounds housed in the revolver’s cylinders while Wade continuously still squeezed the trigger and shouted, “Fuck you!”
After rising to her feet, Alice shouted, “Please let this be a nightmare!”
Loud crashes and shouting came from behind the house when a bloodied man slammed headfirst into the sliding glass door in the kitchen causing it to shatter. Without thinking, Wade grabbed Alice’s arm and bolted out the front door with her and headed back to his car, which still had the engine running and was parked near the street. Wade now noticed that across from Alice and himself, at the house Alice tried to take the other delivery too, was a truck that was on its side, lodged into one of its walls as it all burned wildly into the night sky.
Wade decided that the area was too unsafe for them to call and wait for police to arrive and that they needed to leave. His voice was still shaky as he said, “We need to get out of here. I don’t know what the fuck is going on and we’re not staying to find out.”
Alice’s door slammed shut after she dove into the car while Wade ran around to the driver side and struggled with the door handle trying to open the door. A flaming body emerged from the burning house as it ran towards Wade. After noticing the body running at him, Wade dove through the window of the Mustang and shifted it into first after releasing the parking brake. The car accelerated down the street away from the burning monstrosity as Alice buried her face into her hands and started crying.
“I’m going to call the police,” Wade said as they continued to drive away from the cul-de-sac of horror. After unlocking his phone and dialing 911, he noticed the line never connected and the call had already ended leaving the phone on the home screen. Assuming that he had accidently hung up, he quickly tried again. The same thing happened. The call abruptly ended or maybe it never even made the connection. While turning back onto the highway, he noticed he had several missed text messages from his girlfriend. The latest message said that he needed to get over to her house because something was wrong with her dog, and she needed his help.
Alice asked while still crying, “What was wrong with those people? It was like they were so enraged that they had lost themselves.” After a moment of contemplating, she suddenly remembered what she had seen while looking through the window. She suddenly lurched forward and began puking on the floor of the passenger side of the car.
Fear struck Wade as he asked, “Yo Alice, are you alright? What’s going on?”
“I saw —" She began dry heaving as she tried to finish saying, “I think I saw someone having sex with a dead body before that truck struck that house.”
Wade gripped the steering wheeling harder as he said, “What the fuck?” While Alice was trying not to puke, Wade said, “Calling the police isn’t working and I have missed texts from my girlfriend. Her house is on the way back to your car. I can drop you off afterwards.”
Alice almost lunged out of her seat and latched on to Wade as she screamed, “No! Don’t leave me. I don’t want to be alone!”
Off in the distance, where they had driven past the officers wrestling down the law breakers in the street, there were even more police cars and other vehicles. There were now vehicles that were on fire and crashed into each other where others had run off the highway and crashed. Only the sounds from the emergency sirens and burning vehicles lingered in the air as Wade slowly drove past the stopped and wrecked vehicles. He noticed there wasn’t a person insight. Even though there were fire trucks, ambulances, and other police vehicles, there were no bodies, no people, no one in the area. What had looked like a very lively police check point earlier, was now a desolate ghost town of burning and abandoned vehicles with blood painted everywhere across the asphalt.
Alice abruptly started hitting Wade and shouting, “Did you fucking get so high you crashed the car and killed us? Is this hell?” She began crying again as she curled into a ball on her seat.
Wade didn’t know or understand what was happening. Before any panic could set in, he asked Alice, “Do you have any more ammo for that gun? I don’t know what the fuck is going on but I feel like we’re going to need it.”
While still curled into a ball on the passenger seat, Alice reached into a purse that was wedged into a compartment within the passenger door and pulled out a box of 357 magnum rounds that only had six rounds missing from it. Wade handed Alice’s gun to her that he had still been holding in one of his hands and told her to reload it. Only after passing a couple of exits on the highway, Wade pulled off and made an immediate right down an outer road to the highway. The surrounding area seemed to be untouched from any hellish carnage or anything unusual.
Wade and Alice pulled up in front of a small house at the end of the road that had Christmas lights up even though it was early October. Wade noticed that a familiar vehicle belonging to his girlfriend’s parents was parked outside in the driveway behind his girlfriend’s car. He put the car in park and exited the vehicle followed by Alice. They walked up the driveway and Wade noticed, even though the glass screen door was shut, the front wooden door was open, and he could make out his girlfriend sitting on the living room floor with her legs sprawled out in front of her. He quickly ran to the door and opened it and called out to her, “Clara?” In the corner of the living room was Clara’s dog. It was lying on the floor in a pool of blood and was breathing deeply as it whimpered. Part of the lower half of its body looked rotten and decayed and was festering with insects.
Clara’s parents were lying near her feet. Various parts of their bodies looked as if they had been chewed up beyond repair by a rabid animal and both of them had bullet holes riddled throughout their bodies. Wade tried to find the words to speak but couldn’t find them as he noticed most of Clara’s left arm was barely attached to her body as it looked like something tried to gnaw it off. Clara was crying while in a dazed stupor constantly repeating, “I’m sorry,” Over and over again. In the hand of her other arm, was a small pistol. Smoke was still fuming from the barrel as she looked over at Wade and pressed it against her head and uttered, “I’m sorry.” A gunshot rang throughout the house while blood painted the ceiling and wall behind her. Her body slouched over against the couch she was sitting near as Wade fell to his knees and began to vomit onto the living room floor.
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